Pokemon Sun and Moon: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

It’s true! Despite concerns that Pokemon Sun and Moon wouldn’t actually happen, it turns out that they will be new games for Nintendo, according to this morning’s Nintendo Direct livestream. There was a lot of controversy about the games’ authenticity before the good news was announced. Although trademark applications for Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon were indeed filed in Europe, many media sources were tricked yesterday by a Nintendo parody account into announcing that these new games would definitely be released. Nintendo has been known to register “fake” placeholder trademarks before, so everyone was holding their collective breaths waiting for the news. Now the good news is here.

Here’s what you need to know.

1. The Games Will Be Released in Time for Christmas

Screenshot of the announcement made by Pokemon today. You can still watch it on Nintendo Direct. (Pokemon)

Everyone can celebrate! During the Nintendo Direct livestream this morning, Nintendo confirmed that the two games will be released for Nintendo 3DS by the 2016 holidays. A lot of people already know what they are getting for Christmas!

These are the first major entries to the Pokemon world since Pokemon X and Y in 2013, The Verge reported. The two games will be released at the same time worldwide, in nine languages. During the presentation,Tsunekazu Ishihara, CEO of The Pokemon Company, said that he hoped players would interact with one another from across the world and overcome language barriers.

You can still watch the video announcement. The direct link to see it is here. The video is 6:30 minutes long and the Pokemon Sun and Moon part starts shortly after the 3:30 mark. Here’s another photo from the Sun and Moon portion of the video announcement. You can see more photos in this story.

Pokemon Sun and Moon are announced on Nintendo Direct. You can still watch the video. (Nintendo)

2. The Trademarks for Pokemon Sun and Moon Were Filed Yesterday in the European Market

Pokemon Sun trademark application (OAMI)

The trademarks were registered on February 25, and you can find them yourself on the online database for the European Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market. Just go here and if the search doesn’t show up, then run separate searches for Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon. The trademarks were filed by Nintendo and the application is under examination.

3. Yesterday’s Faked Confirmation Came from ‘Ninlendo’ of America on Twitter

This parody account posted the “confirmation” of the Pokemon Sun and Moon news. It has since been suspended. (Twitter)

Media sites jumped a little too quickly on the bandwagon that Nintendo definitely wasgoing to announce the new games. They based this assumption on a Twitter account called “Nintendo America” that claimed the games would indeed be launching on 3DS and would be announced on February 26 for Pokemon’s 20th anniversary. The problem is that the Twitter account actually belonged to @NinlendoAmerica. (Yes, that’s NinLendo, not NinTendo.) The account has since been suspended, but for awhile it was posting all the news stories and laughing, Forbes reported.

EuroGamer was one of the sites that posted the wrong information. But they were able to make fun of it all:

UNCONFIRMED: No, Pokémon Sun and Moon are not confirmed. @tomphillipsEG banned from further Amiibo purchases until he apologises.

4. Nintendo Has Been Known to Register Placeholder Trademarks Before, So Fans Were Worried It Might Not Be True

Pokemon Moon trademark application. (OAMI)

Fans really wanted the news to be true, but they knew they shouldn’t get excited too quickly. Nintendo has registered trademarks for game placeholders before. According to Serebii.net, these placeholders included Pokemon Amethyst, Pokemon Brown, and the like. Here’s a list of registered Pokemon trademarks that Nintendo didn’t use, some of which even came with logos. Nintendo has also registered domains for the Sun and Moon game titles in different languages, and all the domains redirect to Pokemon.com

5. Pokemon’s Composer and Director Left a Cryptic Tweet The Day Before the Big Announcement

A very excited Reddit discussion thread pointed to a different Twitter account as possible confirmation. The account, @JunichiMasuda, posted a photo of a power line with birds on it, with the moon in the background. Translated, the caption above it reads: “Even though the sun is still out, the moon is shining big and bright!! The birds are chirping too (laugh).” The account is labeled as belonging to Junichi Masuda from Game Freak and the composer and director of Pokemon.

Stephanie Dube Dwilsonis a news, entertainment & science/tech contributor to Heavy. She's also a featured cat blogger, runs a post-apocalyptic blog, and is a guest writer for a number of publications. In her spare time, Stephanie writes screenplays and novels about sci-fi mysteries. You can follow her on Twitter at @StephanieDube or contact her by email here.February 26, 2016 1:42 pm

That is a pretty shitty idea. They’ve added enough unnecessary functions that are complete rip-offs such as mega evolution being ripped off from digimon. In addition, it is very unlikely that GameFreak will see your message considering that this is not their website.